Barriers to Care

Vital access to treatment and recovery can be hampered by a limited availability of care or lack of care in remote areas, by stigma, poor professional skills and poor understanding of the pathways to care.

Access

Inaccessible care in remote areas – Specialist services for eating disorders are mainly concentrated in large metropolitan centres and access to care in rural and remote areas can be inadequate and in many cases, non-existent.

Unacceptable care – The availability of care for varying age groups, types of eating disorders and specific treatment interventions can often reflect clinician interest and expertise, rather than coordinated planning, individual treatment needs and holistic care as required by each illness.

Stigma

One principal barrier has been identified as the stigma that exists around eating disorders.

To reduce the stigma associated with eating disorders, there needs to be a shift in the attitudes and knowledge of the general community. This can be achieved through the development of a ‘no-blame’ model, aimed at minimising the shame or humiliation experienced by people with eating disorders.

Standards and regulations also need to be applied in the media, with a particular focus on counteracting negative or inaccurate views of eating disorders.

Skills and knowledge

Professional Skills

When people do seek help, it is often for a separate problem and practitioners may fail to look beyond the presenting issue to recognise symptoms of an eating disorder. This may be due to lack of knowledge or inaccurate beliefs about eating disorders. This can be corrected through targeted health literacy programs and specific training in eating disorder awareness and recognition.

People who work in primary care, fitness and weight loss industries need to be aware of the importance of early intervention in eating disorders.

It is a known fact that prolonged duration of an eating disorder is likely to have harmful physical and psychological effects and can make recovery less likely. Despite this, the eating disorder field has been slow to implement the concept of early intervention.

Improving eating disorder health literacy of those in the medical, educational and health sectors is vital to increasing early identification of people in the formative stages of an eating disorder or who are at risk of developing an eating disorder.

Of particular importance is the training and supervision of generalist inpatient/outpatient mental health services in assessing and treating people with eating disorders.

Mental Health Literacy

For early intervention to occur, young people and those in their circle of support need to be able to recognise and respond to various signs and indicators that present early in the development of an eating disorder.

This can include evidence of distress, reduced functioning and changed behaviours or eating patterns.

In Australia, growth in mental health awareness has also promoted growth in active efforts by government, media and the wider community to reduce stigma and improve mental health literacy.

The mental health literacy of young people and their wider support network is an important area for continued research and intervention.

Future intervention research must focus on:

Uncovering the most efficient ways to improve and impart knowledge

Promoting recovery-oriented behaviour, such as seeking professional help

Prioritising cost-effectiveness, sustainability of resources and time available to implement interventions

Drawing on lessons learnt from past interventions to develop more effective approaches

Pathways to care

Unclear pathways to care – Unfortunately people with eating disorders and those caring for them do not have a clear understanding of how and when to access help. Clear indicators of referral and care pathways are needed to promote available resources and services.

This Internet site is presented by the Butterfly Foundation as co-ordinating agency of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration for the purpose of providing information and resources on the prevention and management of eating disorders for the benefit of the public. The Butterfly Foundation as co-ordinating agency of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration monitors the information available on this Internet site and updates the information regularly. The Commonwealth and the Butterfly Foundation do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this Internet site or on any linked site.

The National Eating Disorders Collaboration is an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health.

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